Chapter Three

January, 2012

Somewhere in the north-central

regions of the Dark Zone

Night falls early in the heart of winter, casting its shadow over the vast mountains with a deep blanket of darkness. To the eyes of a small child, the end of the day is terrifying and fills their young minds with nightmares of the unknown. However, there are some who have never been bothered by the dark; those who have been molded by it, and welcome the darkness each day as both an old friend and an unfeeling enemy. So it had always been to the people of the lost Seluitah tribe, and their descendents, the brave and passionate Ravennites.

For many generations the Ravennites’ civilization thrived in a vast, secluded territory of the Adirondack mountains known to the outside world as the Dark Zone. The name was given to the Ravennites’ territories by the Outside government in the early 1990s, after the two worlds agreed to remain completely separate from one another, and it was used as a scare tactic to keep other Outsiders from disturbing the people of the mountains. 

However, the Outsiders were already there. In the early months of 2005, Ramon and Robert Morenno, along with the rest of the Outsiders living in the Dark Zone, were led by their father in a devastating assault against the Ravennites’ home in a great valley called Ravenna, killing nearly all their defenders and driving them deep into the mountains. Not long after regrouping themselves, the Morennos learned of their father’s demise in the battle. Since then, Ramon and his younger brother, Robert, continued to hunt the Ravennites throughout the mountains and destroyed the remainder of their homes and settlements. The ruthless emnity of the Morenno brothers and their mindless followers earned them the name, “Domineers.”

Cornered and helpless, the people of Ravenna, led by their new chief, a strong and respected young man by the name of Delmar, gathered the remnants of his people behind the walls of a great fortress they constructed high upon a mountain plateau called the Citadel. Soon, it became clear to them that there was little to no hope of fighting back against the Domineers. However, about five years after the invasion in Ravenna, a young boy from the Outside named Alex Lee wandered into the Dark Zone and found himself accidentally thrust into the terrible conflict. After seeing the suffering of these people for himself, Alex felt that it was his moral obligation to help the Ravennites in any way he could. Although he never saw himself becoming such a thing, Alex was eventually molded into a fierce fighter for the Ravennite cause. 

At first, he was young and had much to learn, but over time, he had grown into a strong warrior with the heart of a true Ravennite. His convictions became absolute after he helped lead the Ravennites to a decisive victory against the Domineers, led by Ramon Morenno’s brother, Robert, when they attempted to conquer the Citadel. Alex Lee did not intend to leave the Dark Zone until the Domineers were defeated and the Ravennites had taken their homes back, if he ever intended to leave at all.

More than a year had gone by since the battle for the Citadel. The people from the southern regions of the Dark Zone, led by the tremendous Darowe, had integrated with the remainder of the Ravennites, more than doubling their numbers, their strength, and their morale. News of the Ravennite victory and the death of Robert Morenno spread all throughout the mountains and drew the last of their people in hiding to the Citadel. 

The Domineers who managed to flee the Citadel retreated south and rallied with Ramon Morenno. Over the course of the following year, Ramon moved the rest of his followers north and attempted to pick up where his fallen brother left off, only to be met by impressive resistance with the help of Darowe’s people, who had proven to be even stronger warriors than Delmar’s. The newly reformed Ravennites managed to push their enemies back as they spent the majority of the spring and the summer seasons fighting for control of the Dark Zone’s central territories. Although more Outsiders were pouring into the mountains every month to join Ramon’s ranks, the Ravennites were able to deal them enough damage to force Ramon to retreat and remain on the defensive for the time being.

As the cold, winter season approached again and the snow began to cover the Adirondacks, the Ravennites took to spreading their resources as far and wide as possible and established multiple camps and outposts throughout the Dark Zone. Alex Lee, continuing to hone his skills in combat, began to train a group of young Ravennites, belonging to both Delmar and Darowe, into a team of elite fighters capable of traversing the snowy environments with speed in order to keep bringing the fight to the Domineers. This skilled team of Ravennites quickly became known by both sides for their prowess, persistence, and for being seemingly impervious to the rough terrain of the winter mountains. It was not long before this reputation earned them a name of their own: the Runners. It was simple, but it struck fear into the hearts of the Domineers who had yet to meet them.

Just before dawn on yet another cold morning of winter, the Ravennite girl called Rowan sat alone in the shelter she had built for herself in one of the Ravennites’ camps in the northern regions of the Dark Zone. A small fire was burning weakly in a pit on the ground, and she sat back against a post supporting the frame of her quarters. Not long before, the Runners had woken early to gear up and head out to track down suspected Domineer activity nearby. Rowan personally bid her friends farewell as they journeyed out into the snow, and now she and those who remained were left alone in the camp. 

Rowan was sleepless as she gazed blankly down at the old pendant her late grandmother had made for her. A very plain carving of a man was positioned in the center of the charm’s face, and a series of mysterious hexagonal symbols encircled him along the edge of the surface. Although Alex claimed to notice another symbol just above the man’s head, Rowan saw nothing there but a blank space, as she had for years.

Rowan’s grandmother was one of the most respected elders in the valley of Ravenna. She was a skilled healer and a very wise woman as far as Rowan could remember. She had passed away about a year before the Outsiders turned against them. It was a time of sorrow for Rowan when she lost her grandmother, but even to this day, nothing haunted her more than that night seven years ago, when the men from the Outside attacked her people and changed their lives forever. Many nights, she was forced to lie awake and recall the terrifying events; when she was roused and hurried from her home by her mother, watching it burn behind them as her father and older brother, Delmar, stayed to fight off their enemies. Rowan did not know anything about the fight that took place except for the limited amount of information Delmar had told her; the worst of all being that only Delmar and his trusted friend, Malachai, had escaped the conflict. Everyone else had fallen, including their father.

Rowan’s memory of that night was hazy, as all she really knew about what transpired was what Delmar and Malachai had told the rest of them. They were the only ones to make it out of Ravenna alive, watching it burn in ruins as they fled up the mountainside to hide with the rest of their people in the clay mines. Rowan had waited anxiously for her family to return and tell them that all was well, but she was a young and naive child then. She had held tight to Delmar’s spear in the dim lit confines of the mine tunnels, sitting back in her mother’s arms until at last, Malachai had been guided into the mines with Rowan’s wounded older brother. It was at this time that Malachai shared the horrifying news with Rowan’s mother, informing them that Ravenna was lost to the Outsiders and that the Chief had fallen.

For the duration of the days that the remnants of the Ravennites spent in the mines, Rowan had fallen into shock and despair. Only a couple of weeks later, her mother succumbed to illness brought upon by grief, and for a long time thereafter, Rowan reeled in heartache at the terrible truth that in such a short time, she had lost nearly all of her family. They had been taken from her, as had her home and her life.

Yet, despite all the traumatizing pain she endured in her young life, Rowan had grown so much and she knew it. She was sixteen-years-old now, and as she sat against the post of her quarters before the dying embers in her fire pit, Rowan felt as though nearly all the pain and sorrow engulfing her life and the lives of her people was finally dissipating. 

Her thoughts tonight had been constantly interrupted, however, by a strange sensation that she was picking up in the cold, winter wind. She understood in her heart that a terrible trial was coming, and it was not the Domineers. For the first time in years, Rowan was shivering in the cold. She had felt this exact same sensation once before, when she was just a small child, and her grandmother had sat her down before the fireplace in their cottage as she told her of the great and mysterious folklore of their ancestors, the Seluitah. A legendary occurrence was returning to the Dark Zone, as it had for all the generations of her people, and both Ravennite and Domineer alike would have to prove their mettle if they wanted to survive it.